Pond Hydro/Aqua Ponics
Taro aka Elephant Ears
Taro is a root that can used in many dishes. I have not fixed Taro myself, but love the plant. It is a water-loving plant, so roots in or near the water is best.
Taro /EE are easy to grow as long as they have plenty of water. In climates that get cold in winter, they will die back, but should come back up when it's warm enough again. Those that do come back, should have extra tubers surrounding the main plant that can be pulled off and replanted in the locations that did not make it through winter. If all made it and you want to harvest some, go right ahead, but make sure to leave the main mass.
Not for cold climates! If your climate is cold, grow in pots and greenhouse and pull in for winter.
Winters for Taro/EE can vary. If you have mild winters, you souldn't have any problems at all. If you only have spurts of cold winters as I do (NC rarely has bad winters, but it does happen), you have two options...
1. You can watch for the leaves to die back and harvest immediately. Do not wait til they goo! As soon as the leaves drop, pull them. You can put them into a dry, cool place to let them go domant. Once they have dried on the outside, brush off the dirt and stringy roots from the bulb. You can either make them your harvest or keep them in a cool, dry, dark place over winter to replant in Spring.
2. You can leave them down. Let the leaves die back and put light-weight mulch on top (raked-up leaves work fine). Do not put anything heavy on top. Protect the area! Once they have gone dormant completely under-ground, they will develop a goo-like substance between their outer layer and their core. This allows for the outside to freeze, but the inside is protected. If this goo layer gets damaged, that bulb will not survive a freezing night.
The advantage to leaving them down is survival. Pulling them up, runs the risk of some not surviving thier dormant location (not dry enough, too dry, pulled too late/early). If you left them down and one or two didn't survive, you can see which ones are growing and pull a bulb (or two) off the side of a good one and use that to replace the ones that didn't make it.
To the left is the Black Magic variety of Elephant Ear. The leaves start as green, but the more sun they get, the darker their leaves become.
To the right is the Giant variety of Elephant Ear. They can get about 5 feet tall. Mine just were stunted this year due to unusual weather this year.
There are many forms of elephant ear.
These are just the two I use.
You should be able to find generic Taro in your local grocery. This is normally the regular green verity. It is cheaper to buy this way. If you want a particular varity, you can find them in garden centers and online, but you'll pay a lot more per bulb.